This blog provides delicious,traditional, vegetarian, South Indian Recipes from my mother Chitra Amma's kitchen. There are few 'world recipes' as well!
Thanks to Shravan, Pranav, Akash, Tara, Guggs, Shankari, Adu, Dhrithi, and Appa Ramachandran for the photos!

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Friday, July 29, 2011

No elaborate preparations. No mess in the kitchen. No piled up vessels to be washed. This tasty cooker sambar saadam comes in handy when you have no time for elaborate cooking .

Set the cooker on the stove. Get ready for an evening show. Just remember to switch off the stove before you leave, of course after three whistles! A warm and flavoursome home made dinner awaits you on your return !

INGREDIENTS

Rice - 1 cup
Tur dal - 1 cup
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Sambar / spice powder - 3 tsps

Salt - 1 1/2 tsps

Tamarind - 1small marble size shreded into tiny bits

OR Tamarind paste - 1/2 tsp

Chopped vegetables - 2 cups

Chopped tomatoes - 1 cup

Sliced onion - 1 cup

FOR SEASONING

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1 pinch

Asafoetida - 1 pinch

Broken red chillies - 4
Curry leaves - a few

METHOD

1. Wash rice and dal together and dump them into a big vessel which would fit into your pressure cooker.

2. Add the chopped vegetables ( chop them slightly bigger so that they do not melt away in the cooker), chopped tomatoes, sliced onion, tamarind, sambar powder, turmeric powder and salt.

3. Heat ghee in a seasoning ladle and add mustard seeds .

4. When the mustard splutters add fenugreek seeds, asafoetida, broken red chillies and curry leaves and fry till the seasoning gives out a pleasant aroma.
5. Pour the seasoning into the vessel containing all the ingredients.

6. Add 6 cups of water, stir, and pressure cook until three whistles.

7. Switch off flame and wait till the pressure subsides.

8. Stir the sambar saadam before serving.

Drizzle a teaspoon of warm ghee over every portion served. Enjoy the tasty flavoursome cooker sambarsaadam topped with chips or salted cashew nuts, or cucumber rings and roasted papad.

Friday, July 22, 2011

The combination of ingredients for preparing delicious aappams are various. Starting from toddy to yeast to cooked rice, the agents used for fermenting the batter are also numerous. Aappams prepared by following the recipe given below turned out quite well.

INGREDIENTS

Rice - 4 cups

Fresh coconut gratings - 4 tbsps

Beaten rice - 1 tbsp

Sour curds - 1cup
Salt - 1 tsp

Sugar - 1 tsp

METHOD

1. Wash and soak rice and beaten rice for two hours using just enough water to cover the grains.

2. Grind the soaked rice and beaten rice with fresh coconut gratings into a smooth batter. Add more water if necessary, remembering that sour curds is also going to be added later on.The consistancy of the final batter should be slightly thinner than that of the usual dosa batter.

3. Add sour curds, salt and sugar and run the mixer for a couple of minutes more .

4. Cover and leave the batter in a warm place overnight for fermenting.

TO PREPARE THE AAPPAM

1. Grease the aappa chatti ( Aappam pan) and heat it .

2. Stir the batter well and pour a table spoon on to the pan, dribble little oil and cook the first aappam to test the appropriate temperature.Remove when done.

3. Pour a ladle full of batter into the aappam pan and lower the flame.

4. Hold the handles on either sides of the pan , lift it up from the flame and swirl the pan, so that the batter evenly coats the insides of the pan.

5. Place the pan back on the flame, dribble oil all around the aappam and cover with the lid.

6. Cook the aappam on low flame for two or three minutes checking in between by lifting up the lid.

7. When the aappam is done remove it by using a spatula.

The cooked aapam, light and white as a full moon has a soft spongy centre and thin and crisp outer edges.

.

If a golden coloured aappam is prefered leave it in the pan for a little longer.

Enjoy the hot and fresh delicious aappams with the traditional vegetable stew.

It tastes good with coconut chutney and sambar as well. Aappams taste delicious with tengai paal ( coconut milk ) sweetened with jaggery. Children love their aappams with a mixture of fresh grated coconut and sugar.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Alasande kayee/ long beans / karamani is a much favoured vegetable which appears in one form or another in a thaali meal / full plate meal served by almost all the restaurants in Karnataka. The tender long beans are used in cooking curries,sambar and masala gravies.

INGREDIENTS

Alasande kayee / Long beans - 1/2 kg

Tur dal - 1/4 cup

Turmeric powder - 2 pinches

Cooking oil - 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp

Black gram dal - 1/2 tsp

Bengal gram dal - 1/2 tsp

Red chilies - 2

Asafoetida - 1 pinch

Curry leaves - a few

Tamarind - one small marble size

Powdered jaggery - 1/2 tsp

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Fresh grated coconut - 4 tbsps

METHOD

1. Pressure cook tur dal with a pinch of turmeric powder and allow it to cool.

2. Wash and string only the tender long beans and cut them into one inch pieces.

3. If you come across ripe beans separate them from the pods.

4. Cover the chopped vegetables and the ripe beans with just enough water and cook till tender adding a pinch of salt. This will retain the fresh green colour of the vegetable.

5. Soak tamarind in little warm water and extract a thick juice and keep aside.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Dry ginger is known as shukku in Tamil. It lends spice and flavour to various dishes and drinks and it is a boon in the kitchen for its medicinal value.

Shukku vellam prepared with dry ginger powder and jaggery acts as an appetizer when consumed half an hour before meal. It assures good digestion and serves as a mouth freshener after a heavy meal.

Shukku vellam alleviates nausea and relieves flatulence. It helps in keeping the digestive system clean.

Crush the dry ginger first with a pestle and then grind it in a mixer to get a smooth powder. Sieve the ground ginger to remove the fiber. Store the fine dry ginger powder / shukku podi in a clean airtight jar and use it when needed.

INGREDIENTS

Dry ginger powder - 2 tbsps

Powdered jaggery - 2 tbsps

Ghee - 1 tsp

METHOD

1. Blend ginger powder and jaggery powder together in a mixer.

2. Add ghee to the blend and knead using a clean dry hand to make a smooth dough.

3. Pinch little at a time and make small marble size balls out of the dough.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Olan is prepared using pumpkin and karamani. For a change I prepared pala kottai olan using jack fruit seeds instead of karamani ( black eyed beans ) which is used in the preparation of traditional olan.

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Hello

Welcome to Chitra Amma's Kitchen.

I am Dibs. I am a born Foodie. I love to cook; love to eat; love to feed folks who appreciate good food. Blogging provides me a great way of documenting my mother, Chitra’s recipes, as a ready reference irrespective which time zone I live in. Amma honestly makes the best food I've ever had, and somehow, the anecdotes she tells us, make the dishes taste all the better.Most posts here are written by my mother Chitra. It’s her recipes, along with related reminiscences of people, places and anecdotes. She writes, I post!What started for a lark, has now become a serious hobby, drawing in participation from the whole family. My father, S.R. Ramachandran has started clicking away every dish made at home! Aunts, cousins, siblings, contribute to photos, and ask for recipes.We try to illustrate implements such as utensils, grinding stones and so on from the ‘pre-electric-mixer’ days wherever possible. We hope this will make an interesting read for future generations, on how food was cooked in earlier times!The site is still in its infancy, and slowly evolving, as our skills improve! We invite your comments, ideas, and questions, and will attempt answering them.

Thank you for your visit, and we hope you enjoy your stay at Chitra Amma’s Kitchen.